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Mission

Every resource in the archive tagged with mission.

14 resources

1997 Letter to ShareholdersLetter

1997 Letter to Shareholders

Jeff Bezos

Mar 1998 · 7 min read

Jeff Bezos' original letter to shareholders is reprinted from Amazon's 1997 Annual Report.

Don't Fuck Up the CultureEssay

Don't Fuck Up the Culture

Brian Chesky

Apr 2014 · 3 min read

Why culture matters more than anything else — the letter Chesky sent the entire Airbnb team in 2013.

Seek Wealth, Not Money or StatusEssay

Seek Wealth, Not Money or Status

Naval Ravikant

Feb 2019 · 6 min read

The difference between wealth, money, and status — and why only wealth buys freedom.

Employee RetentionEssay

Employee Retention

Sam Altman

5 min read

Why keeping early employees matters more than hiring them, and three strategies that actually work.

How to HireEssay

How to Hire

Sam Altman

12 min read

Hiring is the most important thing a founder does; spend a third to half your time doing it well.

Billionaires BuildEssay

Billionaires Build

Paul Graham

Dec 2020 · 15 min read

Becoming a billionaire requires building something people genuinely want, not exploiting them.

When to Do What You LoveEssay

When to Do What You Love

Paul Graham

Sep 2024 · 7 min read

When to pursue work you love versus work that pays well depends on your ambitions and the actual odds of success in your chosen field.

Jeff Bezos’s two pieces of advice for aspiring entrepreneursVideo

Jeff Bezos’s two pieces of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

Jeff Bezos

Mar 2026 · 1 min read

Why entrepreneurs shouldn't chase the hot thing — position for the wave, then wait.

2020 Letter to Shareholders — FarewellLetter

2020 Letter to Shareholders — Farewell

Jeff Bezos

Apr 2021 · 25 min read

Bezos's parting message in his final shareholder letter as CEO, framed via a Richard Dawkins passage on biological homeostasis.

AboutEssay

About

Patrick Collison

1 min read

Patrick Collison's interests and involvement in economic growth, entrepreneurship, climate, housing, and progress studies.

Value Is Created By DoingEssay

Value Is Created By Doing

Sam Altman

3 min read

Most work that feels busy—meetings, networking, talking—doesn't create value; only execution does.

Hard StartupsEssay

Hard Startups

Sam Altman

2 min read

Altman's core thesis: ambition is a recruiting and gravitational advantage, not a liability.

Mean People FailEssay

Mean People Fail

Paul Graham

Nov 2014 · 5 min read

Meanness correlates with startup failure because it costs you talent and prevents the transcendent thinking startups require.

Cities and AmbitionEssay

Cities and Ambition

Paul Graham

May 2008 · 16 min read

Graham's argument for why where you live matters far more than the 'couple percent' you'd expect.